Cholera in New Orleans

St. Roch, patron of plague victims

A report form the 1853 cholera plague in New Orleans:

"The details of the city are reeking with filth.  The bodies of vagrant dogs, poisoned after the summer custom of the city authorities, putrifying in the streets; the corpses of human beings abandoned unburied in cemeteries; the futile firing of cannon and burning of tar barrels in the hope of 'purifying the air', add horror to the picture of the desolate city."

St. Roch is also the patron of dogs.